Challenger Sports: British Soccer Camp

Peanut has always loved to play soccer, but we could never seem to find a team or a coach that allowed him to grow and develop his love for the game. When he signed up to play at a week long soccer camp through the Challenger Sports Program. He was esctatic, I loved how his smile came back when speaking about soccer and then he found out it was the British program. That smile became even bigger! “They have the best accents, Mom.”

During the one week program, I watched my son’s confidence grow with each day. He chose the all day program, starting at 9am and ending at 4pm. Peanut was up each morning and ready to go, if you know Peanut you know that getting him out of bed is like pulling teeth and sometime tortuous for all parties involved. This was the first time in well honestly I cannot remember how long, where he was excited and up to go.

When you signed up for early registration, you qualified for a t-shirt, a free ball and a water bottle. The water bottle was mailed to us and the t-shirt and ball were given the first day of camp. We also qualified for a coupon code to purchase a Challenger Sports British jersey at a reduced price. Peanut of course wanted one.

Each morning was started with signing in your camper, I felt as if I was dropping him off to a friend that we had known for years. Coach Brayan and Coach Matt were professional and welcoming. I appreciated the fact that they took the time to say ‘Good Morning” to me each morning. They also would give me a run down of how well Peanut did each day. That meant a lot to me as a parent, it showed that they were interested in Peanut’s progress and wanted him to do well.

Peanut and Coach Matt

Peanut and coach Brayan

Peanut said that each morning, they started by practicing drills. Each day was a different skill, such as passing, shooting, dribbling, and the final day they combined the skills to play games. The morning was spent developing their skills on their individual levels. Each drill was designed to build onto each one and have fun.

skill drill

The Challenger Sports program, gives you two options for the camp, a half day and a full day. The half day program runs from 9-12 and the full day ends at 4. Peanut opted for the full day and I am glad that he did. He not only had somewhere to go for a full day (let’s face it summer care is hard!) but he was exercising and having fun.

After lunch, the coaches and the campers would divide up and scrimmage, focusing on developing the skills that the children learned that morning and previous mornings. The biggest hit among all of the children was the game World Cup. Each child would choose a country, there is one goal keeper. Each child (or country) has to score a goal. They play until there is one person who hasn’t scored, this person is now eliminated. This continues until there is one player left, this is the World Cup Champ.

playing world cup

I was very impressed with the camp and the coaches. Registering my son was easy, I signed up through their website, choose the dates that worked for our family. About a week before the camp started, I received an email confirming all of the information such as a sign in and out process and the daily schedule. In this email was also the logistics of the day, what they need to bring and where to meet.

I had the privilege of watching the players practice throughout the week and I have to say I was a happy mama. The coaches took the time to get to the know the players, their strengths and their weaknesses. It was amazing to watch Peanut grow so much in such a short period of time.

The last day of camp, the coaches held a little ceremony, where they talked about the week and recognized some of the funny and memorable moments. Each of the players were given a certificate of completion with a personalized note. If you are looking for a wonderful camp for your child to develop their skills or even just their confidence in the game, look no further than the Challenger Sports Camp! Not only is Peanut asking to go next year but he is begging me to sign him up for the next session in July!

Disclosure: I was given a complimentary registration for one week of camp for my son and asked to write a review.

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